" Stadium Capacity increase to 35,000 for 2014/15 "

Capacity at the Cardiff City Stadium could be expanded to 35,000 in time for the start of the 2014/15 season, according to a club director.

Steve Borley also confirmed the Bluebirds would not stage any matches at the 74,000-seater Millennium Stadium in their first year of Premier League action.

Last June, the club’s billionaire Malaysian owner, Vincent Tan, promised a stadium expansion as part of the controversial blue-to-red rebranding.

In a statement outlining how his £100m investment would be spent, Mr Tan earmarked £12m to increase the stadium’s capacity by an extra 8,000 seats.

Mr Borley, managing director of CMB Engineering, said an expansion would be too early for the coming 2013/14 season as procurement would take “the best part of a year”.

As construction would involve temporarily removing the ground’s roof, it could only take place during the close season, he said.

“We’ve never been presumptuous about our promotion. As a club it was case of getting it done first and then worry about the other bits later,” Mr Borley said.

“It’s a pleasant problem to be looking at and it’s something that will be high on the agenda, but my guess is that it would be very much for next season.

“I would say we start planning it for the 2014/15 season.”

He described the expansion as “basically a Meccano job” in which the roof would be taken off to allow pre-fabricated steelwork and pre-cast concrete seating units to be “dropped in”.

“That would take it to roughly 35,000. You can’t design to a seat number, it’s whatever the geometry allows,” Mr Borley said.

“Originally the stadium was designed for 30,000 to 32,000 but we’ve checked our calculations and reckon we could get it up to around 35,000.

“The last time we were in the equivalent of the Premier League our average attendance was 46,000 and there were games at the old Ninian Park where there was 55,000 and 60,000.”

A rudimentary calculation shows that, based on an average ticket price of £25, the additional seats would be worth an extra £3.8m over 19 home league games.

The club is already expecting to see its income quadruple to £80m as a result of promotion.

Any expansion would first require planning permission from Cardiff council.

But Mr Borley ruled out staging any Premier League matches at the Millennium Stadium as Premier League rules don’t allow clubs to “chop and change” their home ground.

He also said the Millennium Stadium pitch “would not last a month in the Premier League”.

“The most important thing to our team is the surface. Our surface is like a bowling green,” Mr Borley said.

“It would be nice to think about it (as a one-off), but at the end of the day when you are in the Premier League you want your home to be a fortress and that will determine your survival.”

Any switch of venue, even for a single match, would require approval from the Premier League’s board of directors.

Earlier this month, rivals Swansea City submitted plans to increase capacity at Liberty Stadium from 22,500 to about 33,000. If given the go-ahead by Swansea council, work will be carried out over three phases.

Plenty of one games for the big games so we would sell out if we stay in the prem next season of course

f**k the Millenium Stadium!!!

f**k the Millenium Stadium!!!

couldn't have put it better myself

Borley was quoted as saying we could go to 58,000 in the Sunday Mirror a couple of weeks ago. I believe there is planning permission to do that but it would cost far more than £12m to do so.

I hope we don't expand the stadium to early, Without trying to sound negative if we get relegated there will be so many empty seats and it won't look good at all.

I hope we don't expand the stadium to early, Without trying to sound negative if we get relegated there will be so many empty seats and it won't look good at all.

Well it won't happen until the season after next (2014/15) at the earlist so if we did get relegated before then I would imagine the plans would be put on hold.

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

If i remember right that is now not an option due to the retail built around the stadium. There is now not the room Chief. But i may be wrong and i usually am

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

If i remember right that is now not an option due to the retail built around the stadium. There is now not the room Chief. But i may be wrong and i usually am

Strange if true, we'd only be adding extra tiers wouldn't we. Don't know how the retail can affect the build. Car parking would be an issue though I'd imagine without question

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

If i remember right that is now not an option due to the retail built around the stadium. There is now not the room Chief. But i may be wrong and i usually am

Strange if true, we'd only be adding extra tiers wouldn't we. Don't know how the retail can affect the build. Car parking would be an issue though I'd imagine without question

Cannot go to 60k as access and other obstacles prevent it expanding to that capacity. Before mcd,pub, kfc was there yes could have been done but now not possible, been documented before on here I believe. ?

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

Current bowl can take a 2nd tier all the way around without any rise in the size of footprint, either outward or upward. The groundwork is strong enough for 60k but that would take a height and width extension.

I am pretty sure the 60k expansion only became impossible when the land bordering Leckwith Road was sold to PMG for a hotel. But they haven't done much with it have they. If we EVER got to a stage where we needed 60,000 seats, we'd easily get the plans passed and the land available, but it's not needed is it.

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

Current bowl can take a 2nd tier all the way around without any rise in the size of footprint, either outward or upward. The groundwork is strong enough for 60k but that would take a height and width extension.

I am pretty sure the 60k expansion only became impossible when the land bordering Leckwith Road was sold to PMG for a hotel. But they haven't done much with it have they. If we EVER got to a stage where we needed 60,000 seats, we'd easily get the plans passed and the land available, but it's not needed is it.

No I know it's not needed at the moment. Was just wondering that's all if it could possibly be done like the original plans suggested

I always thought that the stadium could potentially house 60,000 at max potential. That was the plan when the stadium was in the design stage wasn't it?

Current bowl can take a 2nd tier all the way around without any rise in the size of footprint, either outward or upward. The groundwork is strong enough for 60k but that would take a height and width extension.

I am pretty sure the 60k expansion only became impossible when the land bordering Leckwith Road was sold to PMG for a hotel. But they haven't done much with it have they. If we EVER got to a stage where we needed 60,000 seats, we'd easily get the plans passed and the land available, but it's not needed is it.

I thought Borley categorically denied that any of the developments had affected the potential to expand to 60k?

The stadium can still go up to 60k, nothing has changed since the original master plan was approved by the Council which also included all retail and hotel developments around the stadium. I have the plans, I'll try and get them uploaded at some point over the weekend.

Lets be honest though, we will never need to go that big.

The stadium can still go up to 60k, nothing has changed since the original master plan was approved by the Council which also included all retail and hotel developments around the stadium. I have the plans, I'll try and get them uploaded at some point over the weekend.

Lets be honest though, we will never need to go that big.

Don't count your chicks before before they've hatched. Anything can happen in football. Who would have thought we'd be playing premiership football with twenty plus thousand crowds back in the early 90s